Education and Research Library, Plzen, Czech Republic - Libraries on Waymarking.com

The State Research Library of the Pilsener Region (SVK PK) was founded on the basis of the Government resolution from 28 February 1950 (1 January 1950, retrospectively) as the State Research Library. There existed three impulses to establish a universal science library: the foundation of the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University, the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering University, and the Faculty of Education after World War II. The library was given a Dominican order building complex, one of the historical dominant features of the town.

The basis of the library collection was the former Library of the Municipal History Museum which was founded, along with the Municipal History Museum, in 1878. Mr. Jaroslav Kuba was named the head of the new library. He surrounded himself with a group of workers with whom he achieved excellent results in a short time. The library became one of the most modern at the time. It was equipped with a cable conveyor, pneumatic post, telex and lifts, which helped a faster delivery of books to the readers.

At the beginning of the 1950´s the library became at first an administrator and later the owner of confiscated cloister library collections, which were sorted and incorporated among other books. This way the library got hold of important historic collections. The most valuable books were later put together in the original units and special attention has been paid to them - e.g. the library of the Franciscan monastery in Pilsen, containing 187 incunables and more than 3,500 rare books, is housed as a special unit in SVK PK.

The right to a legal deposit at request was passed to SVK PK by the Library of the Municipal History Museum, which had had it since 1949. Later it was changed to the right to a complete legal deposit. Since 1963 the library was collecting the complete Czech and Slovak print production. The library lost the right to a complete legal deposit in 1996, only the rights to a regional legal deposit and a legal deposit of periodicals remained.

Educational and training activities provided by the library proved to be important as well. Between 1964 and 1997 the Consulting Centre of Librarianship Secondary School in Prague cooperated with the library and prepared 263 students for a librarian job. In 2001 a regional training centre was opened in the library which teaches mainly the librarians to use new information and communication technologies.

Gradually the library started to provide specialised services. In 1978 Music Room, which concentrates on music documents, and the Library for the Blind were founded. A year later a special study room was established, which provides bibliographical, research and special technical information. In 1995 the Austrian Library was founded and three years later the Goethe Institut opened the German Library. At the beginning of 2002 the English Library, supported by the British Council, was handed over to the management of SVK PK.

It also proved necessary to extend the storing premises. At the beginning of the 1970´s the stack rooms in the main building were full and the library started to store its collections under unsuitable circumstances, first in the Chotešov cloister, later in the Krimice castle, in the Chotíkov presbytery etc. Finally the books were stored at seven different places in Pilsen and its surroundings. After renovation of two storing objects in the former military quarters in Bory district of Pilsen in 2001 the library finally has got a stack room for approximately half a million volumes. Since then the library collection, stored in various places, has been being moved to the Bory store. The library keeps only the Bušovice manor, a valuable historic building built by Auguston, which is being renewed according to the Curators´ of Monuments requirements.

At the beginning of the 1990´s the library gradually automated the librarian processes by means of its own automatic librarian system KIMS. A local catalogue was founded, where new acquisitions were recorded. In 1996 the library was connected to the internet and in 1997 the local electronic catalogue was available to the readers on 17 computers. The technology and the accessibility of global bibliography and fulltext databases demanded establishing an internet reading room in October 1998. At the beginning of 1999 the catalogue was accessible from the library home pages. At the moment the library has a subsidized access to dozens of foreign databases, containing bibliographic information about tens of million library units in collections worldwide. It also has the access to fulltexts of thousands of foreign scientific and specialist magazines.

Since 1950 the library name, numbers of its employees and the collection kept changing. At the time it was established by the Ministry of Education, Science and Art, the State Education Library in Pilsen had 9 employees and 134,000 volumes. In 1954 it was renamed the State Research Library in Pilsen, it had 18 employees and 205,000 volumes. On 1 January 1961 the library was delimited to the Regional Bureau in Pilsen, it had 47 employees and the collection of 350 thousand volumes. When the regions were dissolved in 1991, the library was transfered to the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic with 82 employees and 2,170,000 library units. 676 thousand patents from the former socialist bloc (mainly incomplete collections) were cut out. Along with the establishing of new regions in 2001 the library was delimited back to the Pilsener region. The staff numbered 84 and there were 1,650,000 library units. It was renamed the Education and Research Library of the Pilsener Region.

Since 1805 there has been an inscription in the gable of the library building: “Philosophiae et humanitatis studio nec non posteritati suae erexit senatus populusque Pilsenensis” (Built by the Pilsen senate and citizens for their descendants´ philosophy and humanities studies, and not only for them.). For the Education and Research Library of the Pilsener Region it is still a living motto.

Classification of Library: Public Library (Open to all) Internet access available: Unknown - Could not verify Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. Approximate date of opening.: 02/28/1950 Library Website: [Web Link] Additional Internet Connection Options: Not listed

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